Romanian President Klaus Iohannis announced he will step down, effective Wednesday, to avoid the theatrics of an impeachment process launched by Bucharest’s parliament.
Iohannis, who has been president since 2014, was due to leave office after Romania’s presidential elections at the end of last year. However, his term was temporarily extended after the Constitutional Court ordered a rerun of the vote following concerns about Russian interference.
Romania has been in political turmoil since the first round of voting in November saw Călin Georgescu, a far-right independent, catapulted from obscurity into the lead.
Shortly before the second round, Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled that the first round of voting had been so badly tainted by a Russian influence operation on social media that the entire process had to be scrapped and started over.
Iohannis was allowed to remain in office until the rerun of the presidential election, which is scheduled to begin on May 4.
But lawmakers from opposition parties on the far right and the liberal USR party joined forces to file a motion to suspend Iohannis from office, claiming that Romania’s political establishment had failed to provide answers to questions about election security.
Iohannis called the move “unfounded” and “damaging.”
“I have never violated the Constitution,” he said in his resignation speech. “From here, everyone loses, no one wins.”
Following Iohannis’ departure, the president of the Romanian parliament’s upper house, Ilie Bolojan, will take over as interim president until the new presidential elections.
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